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For many, picking the right Instagram
filter can be an agonizing task. With so many options, it's tough
to discern what's going to look the best and grab the most
attention. But now, thanks to extensive data analysis, one
company says it has the hard numbers on what makes a photo
virally successful -- or not.

Curalate, a Philadelphia-based visual
analytics and marketing firm, says it created algorithms to
determine how more than 30 factors -- including color,
lightness and saturation -- can effect an Instagram post's
performance. For its insight, the company says it analyzed
more than 8 million images from the mobile photo-sharing
platform.

"By making a few small tweaks, brands looking to connect with
consumers on visual sites like Instagram can see their engagement
skyrocket, resulting in increased customer loyalty and more
importantly, sales," Gupta says. "Likes on Instagram, while
incredibly valuable, are hard to come by with 65 percent of
Instagram images garnering between zero and 10."

Based on Curalate's findings, which are expected to be announced
this week, here are some basic tips to help businesses kick their
Instagram presence into high-gear. For more, see Curalate's
infographic below.

Keep it cool: Photos dominated by blues and
other cool colors tend to garner more likes while photos with
warmer oranges and reds do worse.

Master monochrome: The more dominant a single
color is on an image, the more likes it could get. Pictures
dominated by a single hue receive 40 percent more likes than
those that don't.

With color, less is more: It can be tempting to
ratchet up the vibrancy, flooding your image with color to make
it stand out. But in today's overstimulated world, bright and
vibrant colors can get lost. The proof is in the data: Curalate
says less saturated images receive 18 percent more likes than
their mover vibrant counterparts.